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Letters to the editor: Green light for Browns coffers

HOW can penalising the taxpayer make any difference to curbing global carbon emissions (Green-tax pressure on Brown, News, last week)? It reminds me of the 1970s when Lewisham was declared a nuclear-free zone, as if it really mattered. Unilateral action will have no effect on the overall amount of world pollution with the huge industrial expansion in China and India wiping out our puny efforts in a matter of months.

Do the politicians really believe that anyone who can afford to buy and run a £60,000 gas guzzler will be worried by an extra couple of hundred pounds on the road tax? The government is jumping on a bandwagon and implementing stealth taxes under the guise of environmental concerns.

John LockeLa Chaize-le-Vicomte, France

TAXING THE WORLD: What a surprise, yet another problem that can be solved by green taxes. A more practical approach, in the short term, would be